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Mackenzie Maxwell

Mackenzie is a writer with seven years of experience in the health and wellness space. She first got interested in college, when she had to be her own medical advocate in getting an accurate diagnosis for her autoimmune disease. Since then, Mackenzie has written for NurseCore, Epic Health Services, Florida Behavioral Health, and several physician offices. She co-owns a martial arts gym with her husband, where she advocates for mental and physical health in her small community.

Approximately half of all Americans do not get enough magnesium in their diets, but magnesium glycinate supplements can help. This version of magnesium is a well-tolerated way to increase the amount of magnesium in your body and address several health issues.

Magnesium glycinate can help you overcome magnesium deficiency, leading to several physical and mental health benefits.
(Image: Madeleine_Steinbach/iStock/GettyImages)

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Magnesium glycinate supplements can help you overcome magnesium deficiency, leading to several physical and mental health benefits such as improvements in blood sugar, inflammation, blood pressure, depression and anxiety.

What Is Magnesium Citrate?

According to a clinical review of the importance of magnesium published in 2017 in Scientifica, this mineral plays a vital role in 300 processes in the human body. People can add magnesium to their diets through foods and several types of supplements.

You can find magnesium naturally in foods like leafy vegetables, grains and beans. However, if you're not getting enough of these foods in your diet, you may experience symptoms likefatigue, weakness and loss of appetite. In this case, you may need to supplement.

Increase your bone mineral density, which lowers the risk for fracture and osteoporosis

Treat or prevent migraines, though relevant studies have small sample sizes

If you want to take magnesium glycinate to lower your blood pressure, consider it as just one tool in the box. Getting plenty of potassium, magnesium and calcium in your diet may help more than increasing just one of these micronutrients. A healthy, varied diet can help you get plenty of these minerals, but you may need to supplement if you're not getting enough. The amount of magnesium people need varies by age and sex.

If you have an increased risk for developing Type 2 diabetes, you should strongly consider making sure you get enough magnesium. A study published in February 2014 in the journal Diabetes Care concluded that increased magnesium consumption can offset the risks for developing Type 2 diabetes. The study specifically looked at middle-aged patients with pre-diabetes.

Psychological Benefits of Magnesium

Depression is a serious mental illness that affects 17.3 million adults in the United States annually. These people may be able to find relief with increased magnesium intake, according to a study published in 2017 in PLOS One. Researchers studied 126 adults with mild-to-moderate depression over a period of six weeks.

After about two weeks of daily supplements, patients reported improvements in their symptoms. Furthermore, patients tolerated the treatments well. While this could mean that people could treat depression with magnesium alone, you should never stop taking depression medication without talking to your doctor first.

The researchers gave each participant magnesium chloride. However, results may be similar with other types of magnesium supplements, so long as the subjects tolerate them well. More research is needed to determine whether magnesium glycinate would have the same effect.

If you experience symptoms of anxiety, do not try to self-medicate. Although the research regarding magnesium and anxiety is appealing, you should seek professional help for these disorders. A doctor may recommend magnesium as part of a comprehensive care plan.